Post Session Commentary - Oct 20 2009

The market erased most of its gains to end the volatile session on negative note as profit booking emerged after recent rise in stocks. Intense selling across the indices dragged the domestic bourses lower. Earlier during initial trading, market exhibited gains on positive global cues, as the US investors were optimistic by comments from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner that most banks are sound capitalized. Meanwhile, the government has cleared the sale of 5% equity in India''s largest power producer, NTPC. The government is expected to fetch around Rs 9,000 crore at current market prices. BSE Sensex ended below 17,300 level along with NSE Nifty closed below 5,150 level.

The market opened on pleasant note tracking firm cues from the global markets. The Asian markets were higher today and the US stock markets closed with gains on Monday on earnings optimism. The Dow was about 100 points up, on the back of investors'' optimistic about the earnings expected in full swing. In addition, weakness in dollar also added to the bullish reaction on Wall Street. Besides, S&P 500 touched 1,100 level during the trading, for the 1st time since Oct 2008. However, Indian benchmark indices turned little volatile after start and slipped off from the early highs as traders booked profits at higher level. Stocks pared most of the gains after negative opening of European markets that contributed to the selling pressure. Market tried to recover during final trading, though was unable to sustain the momentum and slipped again to close in red terrain. From the sectoral front, Oil & Gas, Consumer Durables, Capital Goods Pharma and Power stocks contributed to most of the selling. However, Realty and Metal stocks were in limelight, as witnessed most of the buying from these baskets. Broader market indices were also able to gain favour from the market.

Among the Sensex pack 18 stocks ended in red territory and 12 in green territory. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained negative as 1471 stocks closed in red while 1322 stocks closed in green and 51 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex lower by 103 points or (0.59%) at 17,223.01 and NSE Nifty ended down by 27.35 points or (0.53%) at 5,114.35. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with gains of 3.93 and 11.75 points at 6,655.49 and 7,782.87 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 17,457.26 and intraday low of 17,185.04.

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are M&M Ltd (3%), RCom (2.85%), ONGC Ltd (2.48%), Reliance (1.84%), Grasim Industries (1.82%), HUL (1.75%), ACC Ltd (1.33%), Bharti Airtel (1.31%), BHEL (1.3%), HDFC (1.15%), L&T Ltd (1.02%), Sun Pharma (0.93%), HDFC Bank (0.92%) and Tata Power (0.61%).

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are Hindalco (4.74%), Tata Steel (2.09%), TCS Ltd (2.09%), JP Associates (2.04%), Wipro Ltd (1.88%), Maruti Suzuki (1.65%), DLF Ltd (1.52%), NTPC Ltd (1.01%) and Herohonda Motors (0.59%).

The government has accepted a proposal to release wholesale prices-based inflation data on a monthly basis, instead of every week now. Besides, government has changed the base year to 2004-05 from 1993-94. However, data on primary and fuel items would continue to be released on weekly basis.

On the global markets front, the Asian markets that opened before the Indian market, ended higher. Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng, Nikkei 225 and Seoul Composite ended higher by 46.18, 184.50, 100.33 and 10.08 points at 3,084.45, 22,384.96, 10,336.84 and 1,659.15 respectively. However, Singapore''s Straits Times decreased slightly by 0.61 points at 2,711.09.

European markets, which opened after the Indian market, are trading down. In Paris the CAC 40 is lower by 10.16 points at 3,882.20, in Frankfurt DAX index is trading down by 4.84 points at 5,848.08 and in London FTSE 100 is lower by 7.84 points at 5,273.70.

The BSE Oil & Gas index dropped by (1.7%) or 181.77 points at 10,511.23. Main losers are Essar Oil Ltd (4.01%), ONGC Ltd (2.48%), Reliance (1.84%), Cairn Ind (1.72%), and Aban Offshore (1.55%).

The BSE Consumer Durables index lost (1.5%) or 57.27 points 3,764.9. Losers are Titan Ind (2.58%), Gitanjali GE (2.08%) and Blue Star L (2.07%).

The BSE Capital Goods index closed down by (1.21%) or 172.64 points at 14,093.32. Losers are Lakshmi MAchine Works (4.31%), Kalpat Power T (4.01%), Suzlon Energy (3.02%), Crompton Greaves (3.01%) and Jyoti Struct (2.58%).

The BSE Pharma index ended lower by (0.71%) or 31.73 at 4,438.36. Main losers are Bil Care Ltd (2.57%), Orchid Chem (2.55%), Sunpha Adv (2.40%), Biocon Ltd (1.97%) and Opto Circuit (1.68%).

The BSE Realty index increased by (0.90%) or 42.21 points at 4,729.25 on recent reports that demand for residential projects in major cities is picking up on lower home loan rates. Gainers are Penland Ltd (2.31%), Mahindra Life (2.17%), Unitech Ltd (1.77%), Anant Raj (1.6%) and DLF Ltd (1.52%).

The Metal index ended up by (0.81%) or 127.35 points at 15,911.44, as Hindalco (4.74%), Steel Authority (4.03%), Jindal Saw (3.04%), Tata Steel (2.09%) and Ispat Industries (1.91%) ended in green.

Solix Technologies gained 0.86%. The company announced Oracle validated Solix EDMS integration with PeopleSofl Enterprise 9.0. Through the Oracle PartnerNetwork Applications Integration Initiative, partners with validated integrations are able to provide customers with standards-based product integrations, tested and validated by Oracle.

HCL Tech ended up by 2.82%. Varicent Software Incorporated, an industry innovator and provider of the most comprehensive Sales Performance Management solutions and the company announced their global partnership. This partnership would enable HCL to build upon its existing strengths in Microsoft Dynamics, which forms a strategic part of HCL''s Enterprise Application Services (EAS) practice.

NIIT Technologies Ltd zoomed 2.72% after consolidated net profit surged 80.90% to Rs. 32.20 crore in Q2 September 2009 over Q1 June 2009.

Tanla Solutions Ltd gained 7.27%. The company announced that it has signed a 5 year frame agreement with Nokia, the largest handset manufacturer, covering License Management, Mobile Payments and related professional services.

Unitech Ltd increased by 1.77% after the government approved the Norwegian telecom company Telenor’s proposal to raise stake in its Indian joint venture Unitech Wireless to 74%.

Subex Ltd spurted 4.96% after the company''''s managing director and chief executive officer Subash Menon said the business has stabilized and the future looks positive.

NTPC Ltd advanced 1.01% after the government cleared partial sale of its stake in state-run power major through a follow-on-public offer.